‘Sue me if I lied’: IIT Mandi, entrepreneur spar over reservation claims in skill-based AI course

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi has landed in a tug of war with the CEO of a content marketing agency over reservation in a skill-based course. The institute has denied the founder’s claims of offering a data science and artificial intelligence course without a reservation and threatened her with action. The TEDx speaker, on the other hand, has challenged the institute to sue her if she spread ‘misinformation’, alleging being explicitly asked to add ‘no reservation’.

In a now deleted post, Anuradha Tiwari said that IIT Mandi reached out to them for a collaboration on a 9-month certified course in AI and data science ‘with merit-based scholarship and no reservation’. The admission to the course is based on an entrance test for which aspirants will be charged a refundable fee of Rs 99, as per a poster shared in the post.

Refuting her claims, the institute put out an official statement on X and wrote, “IIT Mandi has no association with Ms Anuradha Tiwari and does not endorse her claims on reservation. The institute strictly follows all GoI norms regarding reservation and will take appropriate action against those spreading false or misleading information.”

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Now, what could be embarrassing for the top-tier institute, the business woman has asserted that she was asked to add the pointer on reservation by the institute itself and that there’s factually no quota in the IIT Mandi course, with a proof. In what can be seen as a screenshot of the conversation between the CEO and the institute, IIT Mandi asked her to add three points to the description to which she replied with an edited note and got confirmation from the institute on going live.

'Lying about reservation'

Finding it shameful, she criticised the IIT's act and commented on the very post in which IIT Mandi rubbished her claims, “I dare IIT Mandi to sue me if there was any misinformation. Sue me in court for 1 crore–– if you have guts! Looks like they’re so scared of Ambedkarites- they're now lying about reservation in their own course. Reality of government colleges run by GC tax money!”

Additionally, the founder added another screenshot of the ‘minor in artificial intelligence and data science’ course run by CCE, IIT Mandi still being live on the IIT Mandi website, to show that it doesn’t mention reservation anywhere and asked the public to verify. “Now IIT Mandi claims they don't endorse my claim on reservation in this course. If their plan is to bring reservation into skill-based courses, GCs should be ready to fight against it,” she remarked.

Notably, Anuradha Tiwari is working to introduce skill-based courses for students belonging to the general category and aims to grow a ‘self-reliant’ open category community, according to her latest post on social media.